Local environment control of the open visitor corridor within a large space exhibition hall of site museum

Abstract

Site museum is a kind of special public building constructed at the original place where the historical sites were unearthed, in which the unearthed relics are preserved and exhibited. The environmental control of such buildings is usually face with the problems of high energy consumption and disturbance between relics and visitors since the relics and visitors sharing the same indoor space. Local environment control is an efficient way to reduce energy consumption and achieve personalized air supply. In this research, a novel local ventilation system for the visitor corridor in winter, by combining displacement ventilation and air curtain, was proposed. Experimental tests of the system were conducted in an experimental hall with both tourist corridor and relics preservation. The results show that the visitor corridor was successfully local heated with average temperature higher than 16°C when both the displacement ventilation system and air curtain were switched on. The environmental temperature meets thermal comfort standards for short-term stay. The air curtain could efficiently prevent the infiltration of cold air and provide a warm air layer to cover the occupied area, such that thermal plume of the displacement ventilation was effective restrained.